Government’s decision to block a documentary film crew from entering the Island had made headlines around the world.

The team from Canada wanted to come to Bermuda to make a film on the 1996 rape and murder of Ontario teenager Rebecca Middleton.

But Home Affairs Minister Michael Fahy refused to grant the five-man Cineflex crew work permits, claiming that any publicity about the tragedy could damage Bermuda’s reputation. The decision was condemned by the Opposition PLP and founding member of the One Bermuda Alliance John Barritt, who said the call “smacks of suppression or denial or worse”.

The controversy caught the interest of international news agency Associated Press, which put out a story yesterday afternoon.

“Bermuda has denied temporary work permits to a film crew working on a documentary about the unsolved slaying of a teenage Canadian tourist in 1996,” the story stated.

It referred to Sen Fahy’s concerns about “potential reputational risks”, and concluded with a quote from a Cineflex spokesman who pointed out that the documentary was still going to be made, even if the crew had been barred from filming here.

The story was then picked up by a slew of news websites, newspapers and television stations from Canada, the UK, the Caribbean and New Zealand.